[Geysers] Lone Star Geyser 1884 poem from Lee Whittlesey

[Lee_Whittlesey at nps.gov]

Interesting, the historic things I continue to run into, even after many
years of studying Yellowstone history. This one is an 1884 poem about Lone
Star Geyser, from a published book that has no apparent author but which is
entitled NEW SONGS OF SEVEN, A RECORD OF A JOURNEY IN WONDERLAND. PRINTED
NOT PUBLISHED, BY THE PERFORMERS, FOR THEIR OWN AMUSEMENT (Cheyenne,
Wyoming: Bristol and Knabe, 1884), and which is illustrated by Phoebus
Apollo. It is a strange, rare little book with the poem below included in
it.

Lee Whittlesey
Park Historian, NPS
YNP

"The Lone Star Episode."

"Over the hills and far away"
In its own canon---so they say---
Alone in its state doth the Lone Star stay.

No carriage wheel by mortal made,
Has yet had power to invade
Its loneliness of sun and shade.

Who will dare the mountain trail?
'Twill be eight miles--no easy sail
By yacht, nor yet a ride by rail.

Fearing naught---no thought of fall,
Fannie climbs her mule so tall;
Nenie mounts her pony small.

"The artillery" takes the right,
Minnie behind on pony white.
Gentlemen follow in merry plight.

So no way daunted, on we pass
Through woods of pine and glades of grass,
Where mountains tall hide lakes of glass.

"The King of France and twenty thousand men
Marched up a hill and then marched down again,"
And so do we, and reach the lonely glen

Where in the center stands the monarch's throne,
Wondrous and beautiful, the Geyser cone,
Towering on high, for rival, fearing none.

As if he waited our admiring train,
Just as we come the steam bursts forth amain,
The water follows---a shower of boiling rain.

Picturing the unknown power hidden there,
Higher and higher leaps the stream in air
Climbing to heaven---then scattering diamonds where

We, silent, awestruck, watch; then slow, sedately,
Returning by the path traversed so lately
We leave the monarch, lonely, still, and stately.